Know your pet

Noisy at night

Rabbits are quiet by nature, which helps them to avoid arousing the
attentions of predators, although they do sometimes make quiet throaty
growls when contented, and have a unpleasant scream if in pain. This
serves to warn wild rabbits of danger, so they can retreat back quickly
to their underground burrows.

The thumping noise that can often be heard coming from a rabbit’s
hutch after dark allows them to attract the attention of others in the
neighbourhood. This noise carries some distance when it is quiet at
night, but there is nothing about the sound that makes it instantly
identifiable as coming from a rabbit.

This helps to avoid alerting possible predators, while allowing
rabbits to keep in touch with each other over some distance. They stamp
their long and powerful hind legs down on to the floor to create this
unusual sound. This also explains why Thumper is a popular name for a
rabbit!

Tail talk

Rabbits also use their tails for communication purposes, although
this may not be instantly apparent, unless they have dark fur. The
underside of the tail, in contrast to the rest of the body, is then
likely to be a much paler colour. Particularly when a male rabbit wants
to attract the attention of a female who is nearby, he will lift his
tail, showing the white underside to her. Such behaviour is known as
tail flagging.

The long ears of rabbits help them to locate and trace the source of
sounds with great accuracy. This is important in the wild, because
otherwise, a predator could creep up on them unnoticed, with fatal
consequences. By knowing where a sound originated, rabbits can look to
escape in the opposite direction. This is helped by the fact that they
can move their ears independently, swiveling one to locate a particular
sound, pinpointing its location very accurately.

If they want to escape attention, especially when they do not feel
that they can run off, rabbits will lie quietly with the ears down along
their backs. They also rest in this way.

Scent and sight

All the defensive senses of rabbits are highly developed, to help
them survive. They rely most heavily on scent, because of their
lifestyle. Rabbits would normally spend much of the day underground in
dark burrows, and may not emerge above ground until dusk, when vision is
of less significance.

Scent marking is commonly used to highlight boundaries between rabbit
territories. Urine may be used for this purpose, although rabbits also
possess special scent glands underneath their chin, and tail. This is
why pet rabbits may often choose to rub their chin on a prominent part
of their hutch or furniture in the home - they are laying claim to this
area of territory.

The rabbit’s acute sense of smell also means that they can pick up
air-borne scents easily as well. When you first move a rabbit to new
quarters or outdoors into a run, it will usually hop around pausing at
intervals to sniff for this reason.

Rabbits also have large, bulbous eyes. The size of the eye helps to
ensure that it traps light effectively, even when it is becoming dark,
while the positioning of the eyes on the head mean that it is difficult
to creep up on a rabbit unseen. They have a much wider field of vision
than we do, which again helps to alert them to possible danger at an
early stage.

Young rabbits

They’re actually born blind and helpless, being totally dependent on
their mother. Amazingly though, the doe will only visit her offspring in
their nest for perhaps five minutes every day, allowing them to suckle
briefly. This is all that her young, called kittens, actually require
however, in order to grow and develop at a relatively fast rate. Even
so, they have well-advanced sensory powers at this early stage. Young
rabbits are very sensitive in terms of detecting changes of temperature,
huddling together to keep warm, and they locate their mother’s nipples
by scent at first, before their eyes are open.

Bucks disagree

Keeping two male rabbits together is not recommended because bullying
is likely to become apparent as they mature. The dominant male will
start to rub his chin on the subordinate individual, depositing his
scent here on his rival’s fur. He will also adopt a very distinctive
raised body posture, while appearing to have stiff legs. This gesture is
intended to intimidate its would-be rival, as it causes the rabbit to
appear larger than is actually the case. Rabbits rarely fight, although
they can inflict painful blows on an opponent with their strong hind
legs, and also wrestle with their forelegs. Aggression of this type is
most likely if two bucks are placed together, and can lead to serious
injury.